


picking up the pieces

by sootcharlie



Series: Voyager (Soothouse Raft AU) [1]
Category: Raft (Video Game), soothouse
Genre: Blood and Injury, Gen, Hurt Charlie Soot, Hurt/Comfort, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:33:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29172699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sootcharlie/pseuds/sootcharlie
Summary: Islands were a hard gamble whenever Charlie, David, and Matt went onto one, and the trio knew that by past experience. This time wouldn't be any different, right?inspired by charlie's stream today bc raft tuesdays are Pog
Relationships: Charlie Soot & David Soot, Charlie Soot & David Soot & Matt Soot, David Soot & Matt Soot
Series: Voyager (Soothouse Raft AU) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141613
Kudos: 5





	picking up the pieces

**Author's Note:**

> very excited to be writing about the raft au seeing as how many possibilities it has :D
> 
> heed the tags, someone gets heavily injured here! it's not described in detail, only the blood and wounds are mentioned, but proceed with caution if blood mentions make you blech

Islands were a hard gamble whenever Charlie, David, and Matt went onto one, and the trio knew that by past experience. Animals, some that they haven't seen in years, and other strange creatures that they didn't think were actually real until one of them was sent flying into the ocean or running back to the boat with a bleeding arm from the claws of said creature usually inhabit the islands they visit. 

This one was no different. At that point in time, it had been at least three months since they've seen actual land, Charlie thinks. He's lucky they've had enough supplies to live for as long as they have.

Even if it's just a diet of watermelons and shark meat, it was still something.

The ship itself was quite cozy too. Sure, a leaf bed wasn't the best to sleep on, but it was still better than sleeping on the hardwood floor that the boat was made on. 

None of them had even noticed that an island was nearby. He was leaning against the fence of the ship, telling some idle tale to David about how much Tommy has grown in popularity.

He still remembers shaking the kids hand at the airport, making a joke about them creating their own nation together. Now there he was, face plastered up on town walls alongside Wilbur, Phil, and Techno.

His attention had jumped from the story to the huge shadow in the distance that slowly revealed to be a bunch of grass when they came closer and-

"Holy shit. Holy  _ shit!"  _ Charlie shouted, immediately running towards the wheel, steering it in the direction of the island. Matt stumbled a bit at the sudden turn, but seeing what was up ahead, he decided not to say anything.

"Land mass ahoy!" Matt said with a grin. The boat approached the shore, and the three hopped off the boat one by one onto the grass. 

"It really doesn't feel real after so long." David said with a chuckle, kneeling down and picking a flower that he stuffed in his pocket.

"I think the engine we got helped us out a lot." Charlie idly-noted, adjusting the decapitated shark head that he was wearing so that he could actually see around better. If he was going onto land that he doesn't know, then he sure as hell was going to be prepared for anything that was going to happen, even if it's small.

A scream from Matt caught the attention of the other two, seeing the man running around with a bird flying directly over him. Oh  _ shit.  _ HUGE bird. His screams only got louder as he limped back towards the group.

"I GOT HIT BY THE BIRD!" He yelped, pointing up at the creature that was now flying in the sky headed directly towards them. "HE THREW A ROCK AT ME!" David shoved Matt away from them, and before any protests could be mad, he immediately spoke up.

"Run! The thing's gonna squash us all with that rock if we're grouped up!" The green-texted man said with slight panic in his voice, and the group nodded. Charlie made a dash towards another part of the land, already barely able to see the familiar figures of his friends.

He looked up, and the bird was  _ right above him.  _ That's not good. That's not good at all. 

_ Okay, Charlie. There is a bird flying at you with a rock that already severely injured Matt, and the thing looks huge for Sky God's sake.  _

"IT'S GOT A ROCK AND IT'S COMING FOR ME!" He yelled, stumbling back, seeing the thing release the rock from it's vice grip. The rock came flying down, landing on the ground so hard that the land around him shook, bits and pieces from the impact making him almost fall with a sudden pain in his chest. 

He made his way back to the boat slowly, clenching his arm as he made his way back to the boat, holding his arm tightly.

"There's a little bird!" David shouted to who he could only assume was Matt, but he still butted into the conversation anyways from what little he could decipher.

"Kill the child!" Charlie responded with, to which the orange-texted man agreed to. He heard the two scrambling around trying to kill the small bird, seeing David hand Matt a bottle of water after successfully being able to down the creature.

\---

It was sunrise when they went back to the island. The night beforehand was long, full of hours of planning about how they were going to take that damned bird down.

Charlie held a bow and arrow tightly, ready to fire if he saw anything even remotely fly by him. He just hoped none of his friends knew how to fly, because that would be bad.

"What's.. the curvature of these.." He muttered to himself, fumbling around with the weapon and shooting a couple of his arrows at the rock infront of him for a test. He overheard David complaining behind him.

"We are about to kill a huge ass bird, and he's wondering what the curvature of arrows are."

"Hey! It's a very important question!"

"Guys, our company is here!" Matt interrupted their conversation and pointed at the creature that had nested onto a large patch of grass. Charlie immediately shot an arrow, hitting it dead on. David threw the arrow towards his friend so that he had a faster reload time, seeing as their downed prey was already back up and ready to fly again.

"He's trying to throw more shit at us! Not literally, but you get what I mean!" David shouted, breaking apart from Charlie to make sure that neither of them got hurt by the rock that was suddenly flying towards them. 

"When he perches, get him down." Matt said, looking at where the bird appeared to be heading.

"Got it." David said, clenching his spear and running towards where Matt was looking at.

"We're gonna kill this thing." Charlie replied to the two of them confidently, a small smile on his face. They were gonna do this. Easy! Without anything bad happening!

He saw something running past and immediately shot, grimacing when it was the tiny bird. Those were two arrows wasted on a small bird that he was sure he wasn't going to get back.

"Damned birds.." He grumbled, head snapping back when he heard the screams of his friends of "GO, GO, GO!" and "HE'S LANDING!"

God, the ranger wished he had better aim, missing both of the shots that he fired at the bird. It was coming for him. He swore he saw his life flash before his eyes when a rock dropped directly on him, but due to some miracle, Sky God or something, he dodged it. 

"He's too fast!" David yelped, pacing back and forth. A lot of in-between bickering, until their conversation was interrupted by a zebra running past them, and Charlie once again shooting on instinct.

Another miss.

"I'll get him!" Matt said, immediately trying to swing at the creature, but missing.

"I'll shoot him-" And then a searing pain on his right side. The bird had fucking scratched at his arm! "THE BIRD JUST FUCKING HIT ME!" He wiped the blood off of his arm, seeing as it wasn't that big of a bruise, just something that he could wrap up later, refocusing back on the zebra that just  _ wouldn't go down. _

"He's dodging everything!" Charlie said with dismay in his voice, and then-

"WOO!" "YEAH!" It was down. Thank god.

The green-texted man put his hand down on the zebra to use it for food, and-

"We can't even use the damned thing for food!" 

He sighed, instead deciding to run back towards the bird. He didn't care about the off-handed shouts from his friends, he was going to kill that damned flying creature. Luckily enough for him, it didn't appear to be flying over him. David was waving his arm to taunt the flying creature with a smile.

"Perch over here you damn bird!"

Perfect for Charlie to do what he needs to. He saw a structure in the distance, and began to make a dash towards it.

"I'm taking the high ground!" He shouted towards his friends, climbing up fast but efficiently. He was about to make it all the way up and then- Another searing pain in his arm. The bird scratched him again. Okay. No big deal.

You've been injured multiple times before. Just don't die, Charlie! It's easy!

"I am gonna die. I am going to die." He muttered to himself, eyes widening in panic as he ran around the stone and climbed up to what he believed was the direction of the boat.

"Come on, where's the boat, where's the boat.. I'm going to die." He said with slight tears in his eyes, climbing up to the top of the island. His eyes widened. The boat was in the distance.  _ Boat. Home. Safe. Safe. Run.  _

What he didn't hear was the bird flying down and going for him again. He collapsed to the ground with a choked noise, a harsh pain in his chest.

"I'm down- I'm down, please!" He shouted with a weak voice, not even able to know if David, Matt, or anyone could hear him. All he knew was that he was in danger. It wasn't like Charlie wanted to be in this position. Lying on the ground, hands out in front of him, legs curled up to his chest as the bag full of what they needed to power their ship was right in front of him.

He weakly reached out for the bag, wincing in pain at how he could barely move his body. He was sure the grass beneath him was somewhat stained red by how much the bird had done to him.

That wasn't good. Not good at all.

"I've got the engine, come get me, PLEASE!" He sobbed out, the pain too much to handle. He thinks he hears a voice shouting back.

His ears are ringing too much to be able to hear anything correctly. Something about help. He prays he's hearing that right. He doesn't want to die. He's so scared.  _ I am fully down. _

David's voice.  _ Safe. Help. Friend.  _ "Where are you?"

_ Don't want to die. Pain. Fear.  _ "I-I'm at the top!"

Footsteps are heard, but he's too weak to be able to even remotely look up towards where they're coming from. He's so tired.  _ Can't fall asleep. Fail mission. Engine. Hurt.  _

"I found him!" He hears David's voice call out, and arms are wrapping around him. He's placed onto someone's shoulder. He thinks, at least. His vision's too blurry to tell what's happening.

Incomprehensible whispers are all that fills his ears. David's trying to tell him something, but he wishes he could tell what it was. All that he can hear is static and loud ringing. A small part of Charlie feels like he should know what's being said.

"I've got you." That's all he hears. He wants to respond, he wants to say something, anything to David as gratitude. He feels like a dick, but he knows his voice is going to be too hoarse to say anything that could be understood. He needs to save his energy.  _ He's going to fail them. He's such a bad captain, he's terrible, he's- _

Another sob tears through him as saltwater gets into all the wounds he has. David's swimming back to the boat.  _ I wanna go home. Home. Please. _

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry bud. You're gonna be okay." David's comforting words break through the ringing in his ears.

Even if he feels like he's on the verge of death, he's comforted by that. A harsh gasp escapes him when the two make it onto the boat. The blue-texted man feels his eyes closing as he's placed down onto a bed.

"You can sleep. I'll take care of you."

And he does.

\---

David sighed, looking down at his friend. Now that he was actually asleep, now came the hardest part. Actually having to clean up the wounds. They looked terrible, and that wasn't even exaggerating. No wonder he was in so much pain when the saltwater got inside.

Large gashes on his arms and chest. He doesn't even know if they have the proper materials to care for that type of injury.

"Matt, do we have bandages?" He asked, making his way to the top of the ship and rummaging through things. 

"Yeah, hold on.." Matt quickly responded, digging into his backpack and handing David a first aid kit and a  _ long  _ strip of ace wrap. 

"Thanks." David nodded, going back down towards the now sleeping Charlie with a sigh. The man was obviously in pain whilst he slept, shaking with each breath taken, curling into himself tightly. That probably wasn't healthy. 

"Gonna wrap you up, alright Charlie?" David muttered to the sleeping man. He knew he wouldn't give a response, but on the small off-chance he was awake, he knew he had to at least give a warning. He started by gently moving Charlie so that he was lying on his back, all the wounds able to be clearly seen.

Taking a cloth out of the first aid kit, the first step was, at least he assumed, to clean up the blood. Wiping it all off, making sure it was clean first. 

Second was to wrap them up in the bandages to apply pressure. 

He noticed Charlie's whimper and a small "I'm sorry" escaped him. He hates hearing his friend in this much pain, especially one so lively. Lifting up the shirt of the other, he quickly took to wrapping the bandages around and clipping them on tight. Not too tight so he couldn't breathe, just tight enough so that there was that right amount of pressure.

Usually, they all shared the same small bed, seeing as there was barely any space on the ship for all of them. But they'd accommodate for a makeshift bed for tonight. He turned to pull back, Charlie's grip on his hand stopping him.

The man's eyes were barely open, bleary and unfocused.

"Stay with me for tonight?" He mumbled softly.

Looking over to Matt, who gave a thumbs up, he nodded, leaning down onto the leaf bed, gently wrapping his arms around Charlie.

"Yeah, I'll stay."

Maybe they'll turn out okay after all.


End file.
